Method and apparatus for slow aperture scanning in a single aperture confocal scanning EPI-illumination microscope

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for scanning a specimen with an aperture of a confocal scanning microscope at speeds slower than &#34;flicker fusion&#34; includes an aperture disc with an optical timing sync track around its periphery with an infrared LED and photodetector for sensing the position of the sync track and, hence, the aperture disk for controlling the position and scanning speed thereof. By scanning at speeds slower than those typically used, improvement of the quality of the image is attained. An optimum scanning speed given the limits of the video camera is to scan at a speed which exposes each portion of the specimen for the full image acquisition time of the video camera. Further enhancement of the image can be attained by using an image processor with a frame buffer for storing the image as it is acquired along with adjusting the gain and black level controls of the video camera to block out backscatter off the aperture which greatly enhances the signal-to-noise ratio.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/434,451 filed Nov. 13, 1989 (now abandoned), which is a continuation of Ser. No. 07/243,353 filed Nov. 16, 1987 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,880 issued Dec. 5, 1989), which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/100,468 filed Sept. 24, 1987, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Confocal scanning microscopes are well known in the art. There are two types of these, one being the epi-illumination type which reflects light from a specimen and the other being the transillumination type which transmits light through a specimen. The present invention relates to microscopes of the epi-illumination type. These microscopes provide improved resolution by illuminating only a small portion of the specimen at a time, and masking the returning (reflected or fluroescence) light to view only that same small portion to minimize the effects of scattered and out of focus light from surrounding portions of the specimen. The entire specimen is viewed by scanning the specimen in small increments and coalescing these increments either in real time or with a video camera and image processor or the like. Several examples of microscopes utilizing this technique are shown in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,013,467; 3,518,014; 3,547,512; 3,926,500; 4,170,398; 4,323,299, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

In most of these prior patents, the approach has been to utilize a first aperture for the incident light, or otherwise collimate the incident light into the desired scanning pattern such as by a focused laser, and a second, separate, aperture for the returning light, the incident and returning light generally having different paths through the microscope. In the prior art, these apertures were typically either slit or pin hole type, and there are various techniques in the prior art for synchronizing these apertures as they are moved to completely map the specimen and thereby create a complete image thereof.

One such technique utilizes the Nipkow disc, which is a disc typically containing over 32,000 holes, each about 50 microns in diameter, and arranged as a series of Archimedian spirals. In operation, the disc is spun to rotate a series of complex, precisely aligned holes in one side of the Nipkow disc across the incident light beam to create the incident light scan. The returning light is directed back along a different path through the opposite side of the Nipkow disc which contains a symmetrical set of complex, precisely aligned holes to mask the out-of-focus light. In other words, the Nipkow disc contains pairs of precisely aligned holes or apertures, each hole in the incident light path having a corresponding hole for the returning light path. In the Nipkow disc, great care must be taken to create each hole exactly the same size and shape, and in a perfectly symmetrical pattern to obtain an evenly illuminated field, and then it must be aligned such that each hole and its corresponding hole pair are perfectly aligned to illuminate and view the same part of the specimen at the same time. As might be expected, Nipkow discs are quite expensive to make in the first place and, once made, great care must be taken to mount them properly and control their movement to ensure proper operation of the microscope. Furthermore, a change in the magnification of the primary objective requires a change in the Nipkow disc to one having holes of different sizes.

As shown in the prior art patents mentioned above, there are other solutions to aligning the sets of apertures in these tandem confocal scanning microscopes. However, all of these devices suffer from the inherent problems involved in not only creating a pair of apertures which are exactly the same size and shape, but also coordinating the movement of the aperture pair with the separate light paths for the incident and returning light to create a high resolution, high quality image. Because of the requirement for dual apertures that are precisely aligned with themselves and the two light paths, there is an inherent limitation in the ability of the manufacturers to produce consistently high quality microscopes. Furthermore, these microscopes are significantly more expensive than microscopes not using this technology and require much more fine tuning and adjustment to maintain the image quality.

One of the patents mentioned above, U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,500, discloses a confocal scanning microscope utilizing a single pin hole diaphragm placed at a field plane which is conjugate to the specimen plane in both the incident and reflected light and thus represents an advance over the tandem confocal scanning microscopes explained above. With this arrangement, a Nipkow disc is not required and there is no need to carefully match and line up pairs of apertures. However, this microscope design utilizes a first lens in the incident light path only for focusing the light through the objective lens onto the specimen and a second lens in the reflected light path only which focuses the image of the specimen at the observation plane. With this arrangement, it is quite inconvenient to change the magnification of the microscope. Either one of two approaches might be made to effect a change in magnification. The first of these would be to change the image forming lens which receives only reflected light. However, if this primary focal lens is changed, there is no corresponding change in the illumination of the specimen and this can seriously degrade the image. Changing the illumination is particularly important in scanning microscopes because an image is created by brief exposure of light to each small area of the specimen illuminated through the aperture. With brief illumination, high intensity light is absolutely necessary to view the specimen whether by film, video camera or eye. Thus, not only the image forming lens, but some other lens in the incident light path must also be changed in order to properly condense the light to match the new image forming lens.

A second way magnification can be changed is by changing the power of the primary objective. Although a change in the primary objective eliminates the problem mentioned above with regard to illumination as it receives both incident and reflected light, other adjustments are required. As the ideal aperture size for confocal imaging is determined by the magnification and numerical aperture of the primary objective, a change in the primary objective must also be accompanied by a change in the aperture size in order to ensure proper confocal imaging. Thus, the aperture or pin hole size in the diaphragm would need to be changed each time the magnification is changed. Therefore, the inventors believe that the arrangement for the microscope shown in this reference is not readily adaptable to most microscopy applications because of its lack of versatility.

The inventors herein are also aware of a microscope which utilizes mirrors and extra lenses to create a conjugate field plane at a point proximate to the eyepiece thereof. Mirrors are placed in the returning light path only and reflect the light perpendicularly thereto for a distance to locate the created image plane physically away from the eyepiece for clearance purposes. At this conjugate image plane, various kinds of accessories, including a video or still camera, may be interfaced to provide greater versatility for viewing and recording the specimen. In essence, this conjugate field plane serves as an optical port for accessing the viewed specimen. However, this optical port may be used with any type of microscope, and does not have any effect on the image created by the microscope.

Despite all of the difficulties involved in the design and use of confocal scanning microscopes, and their rather significant expense, they provide significant improvement over the images which may be obtained through the use of an ordinary epi-illumination microscope. Indeed, in the last several years, there has been renewed interest in the use of confocal scanning microscopes as an instrument to aid in the investigation of biological and physical phenomena. Because of this increased interest in confocal scanning microscopes, there has developed a significant demand for these microscopes. Presently, they are commercially available but, as mentioned above, are generally many times more expensive than an ordinary microscope because of the manufacturing and tolerance problems related above.

As disclosed and claimed in one or more of the above-referenced applications, the inventor herein was one of the co-inventors who previously designed and developed a kit for converting a standard epi-illumination microscope into a confocal scanning epi-illumination microscope which uses a single aperture for masking not only the incident light, but also the returning light. An extra lens or lenses are positioned between the body of the microscope and its primary objective lens to create a conjugate field plane for both the incident and reflected light in the light path between the specimen plane and the beam splitter, and an aperture is provided for placement within this conjugate field plane so that the incident and returning light are necessarily in focus both at the aperture (conjugate field plane) and the specimen (specimen plane). Lastly, means are provided to controllably scan the aperture across the specimen as required to achieve a true confocal scanning microscope. With this new arrangement, a standard microscope has not only been easily and inexpensively converted into a confocal scanning microscope, but this new arrangement provides advantages over all of the known, presently commercially available confocal scanning microscopes.

With the arrangement achieved by mounting the kit to a standard microscope, a tremendous advantage is obtained over the tandem confocal scanning microscopes in the prior art in that only a single aperture need be manufactured and aligned with a single light path. This completely eliminates the problem in aligning pairs of apertures with a pair of light paths, an inherently much more complex problem. In principle, the modified microscope is comprised of a standard microscope with a kit mounted thereto. The standard epi-illumination microscope contains a light source which provides an incident light beam, a beam splitter which may be a dichroic mirror, and a stage to move the specimen. In one embodiment, the kit includes a first or intermediate lens system which focuses the incident light at a first field plane, an aperture positioned at that first field plane, and a second intermediate lens system which defocuses the incident light into the microscope's standard objective lens, the objective lens refocusing the incident light at a plane where the specimen is positioned (specimen plane). The returning light then retraces the same path through both of the intermediate lens systems and the same single aperture back to a beam splitter which may be a half-silvered mirror or the like where it is separated from the incident light and focused by an eyepiece lens, standard camera, video camera, or the like. Thus, both of the incident and reflected light traverse both of the intermediate or extra lens systems, and the microscope continues to be compatible with its own and other standard lenses.

In essence, with this arrangement a second conjugate field plane for both the incident and returning light is formed at the aperture, this second field plane being conjugate to the specimen plane such that the specimen is illuminated with a light beam whose size and shape is determined by the size of the aperture and the lenses creating the conjugate field plane, the light being in focus both at the aperture and at the specimen. As a magnifying objective is positioned between the aperture and the specimen, the actual size of the light beam illuminating the specimen is smaller than the size of the aperture. Magnification of the microscope may be changed by merely replacing the first intermediate lens system. In this way the aperture size need not be changed as magnification changes as is required in other confocal scanning microscope designs. Moreover, the change in magnification is automatically accompanied by a concomitant change in the illumination as the size of the illuminating beam is condensed by the same lens.

Still another embodiment for a kit was shown which can be used to convert a standard microscope into a confocal scanning microscope, and which utilizes only one additional standard objective lens. However, in this embodiment, either the physical arrangement of the lenses or the performance of the microscope is not as convenient or desirable as in the first embodiment. As is well known in the art of microscopy, standard objective lenses are rated with a particular magnification, numerical aperture, tube length, and working distance. The tube length represents the distance between the back focal plane of the lens and another focal plane behind the lens at which light of all wavelengths are in focus, that focal length thereby being the location for the color corrected focal plane. In a typical standard objective lens, this length is 160 mm. As can be appreciated, if the second standard objective lens is inserted in line with the original standard objective lens, then the effective length of the microscope is virtually doubled, making the microscope somewhat unwieldy and inconvenient for proper laboratory use. Secondly, if there are no changes to the other lenses used in the microscope, then a phenomenon known as empty magnification may occur where excessive magnification of the specimen renders the image unintelligible. However, if lower power lenses are utilized at the other lens positions to correct for empty magnification, then it is quite possible to create a confocal scanning microscope with the addition of only one standard objective lens placed at the proper tube length.

In an alternate version of this embodiment, the primary objective lens may be placed closer to the aperture than would ordinarily be dictated by the tube length, but this would have an effect on the working distance of the lens and might possibly reduce it to such an extent as to make the microscope unusable. As known in the art, the working distance represents that distance between the front of the lens and the front focal plane of the lens where the specimen is to be placed for proper viewing. In a typical standard objective lens, this distance may be 0.17 mm. As can be appreciated, significant reduction in this distance would interfere with viewing of some specimens which are contained between glass slides, or the like. Additionally, there would be chromatic aberration in the image as the different wavelengths of light would not all be in focus at the same plane. In other words, the microscope could be focused for green but then be out of focus for blue and red. However, if the application would not require use of more than one wavelength or color component, or if the chromatic aberration is minimal for a particular application, then this would not detract from the operation of the microscope and it could be successfully achieved with standard lenses.

While all of the above embodiments utilize standard objective lenses, it is to be understood that special lenses could be designed and built in order to solve the tube length, working distance, and chromatic aberration problems inherent in the embodiments utilizing only one extra lens. However, this would eliminate the very significant advantage of a user being able to utilize his inventory of standard lenses in the microscope, an inventory which may include quite a number of special purpose lenses acquired at substantial cost for particular applications. The converted microscope would thus not be very versatile compared with the other embodiments and the cost could be quite significant to design and build such a special objective lens. It is therefore believed that this embodiment is not as desirable as the other embodiments disclosed in the parent.

Although it is important that the conjugate field plane be created for both incident and reflected light traversing the path between the specimen plane and the beam splitter, embodiments were disclosed wherein the physical location of the conjugate field plane is at different positions. In some of the embodiments, the conjugate field plane is physically aligned along an axis extending between the eyepiece, beam splitter, and specimen. These embodiments require that the stage be low enough to allow the additional lenses and field plane to be inserted between the nose piece and stage. In other embodiments, a set of mirrors are provided and positioned to reflect both the incident and reflected light a distance away from the microscope centerline. By canting the mirrors properly, the stage need not be particularly low and greater clearance may be obtained for accessing the conjugate field plane such as might be desired to interchange apertures. The mirrors in the principle axis of the microscope might also be formed on opposite sides of a single element to minimize the height of the microscope.

An aperture of any shape, such as a pin hole or slit or the like may be positioned at the coincident field plane to create the scanning beam for illuminating the specimen and also for masking the returning light. With this single aperture arrangement, many advantages are realized. For example, as mentioned above, there is no further need to create an aperture device which comprises two sets of precisely aligned holes or slits. Furthermore, there is no need to precisely align that pair of holes or slits with a pair of light paths, there being only one light path for both incident and returning light. Additionally, the manufacturing tolerances for a single aperture can be relaxed as the single aperture masks both the incident and returning light and must therefore be, by definition, fully and completely coincident. Replacement of the aperture may be easily accommodated merely by removing the first aperture and replacing it with any other aperture. The only requirement is that it be positioned at and aligned within the conjugate field plane. As compared with the tandem confocal scanning microscopes in the prior art, replacement of the aperture becomes a simple task as the problem of aligning the aperture is dramatically simplified.

This converted single aperture confocal scanning epi-illumination microscope made with the kit is not only much less expensive than buying a "regular" confocal scanning microscope, but it is also of much higher quality in that manufacturing tolerances and alignment of the aperture do not have a dramatic effect on the quality of the image produced by the microscope.

While confocal scanning microscopy can dramatically improve the resolution of an image, there are problems inherent in the process which are caused by the necessity of masking the illuminating light such that only relatively small regions of the specimen are illuminated at any one time. Principally, these problems concern the illumination of the specimen and the collection of light returning from the specimen at levels greatly reduced over that of standard microscopy. This is further compounded by the desire to detect images with the human eye in real time, or to otherwise detect images of specimens that are either moving or rapidly changing in that such applications require a complete scanning of the specimen at a rate rapid enough to eliminate flickering of the image. This "flicker fusion" rate for the human eye is thirty frames per second which translates into the requirement of scanning a specimen to create a full image every 1/30th of a second. In practice, most prior art confocal scanning microscopes scan at rates well in excess of this "flicker fusion" rate of thirty frames per second. Additionally, many video cameras have an image acquisition time of 1/30 th of a second (and sometimes even less for particular applications). Perhaps, these video cameras choose the same image acquisition rate as the "flicker fusion" rate for the human eye as the purpose of the video camera is to present flicker free images on a television monitor in real time, at least in some instances.

When the specimen is scanned at these rates which approach "flicker fusion" and even exceed it, there is a dramatic reduction in total brightness of the image as the eye or video camera is effectively blocked from the specimen for a far longer portion of the time than when the specimen is illuminated. For example, a typical aperture disc which has a plurality of Archimedean spirals therein as is well known in the prior art and used for confocal scanning microscopy has holes in only a small fraction of the total area of the disc. This can approach the five percent level. Therefore, for ninety-five percent of the time as the aperture disc rotates, the specimen is blocked from view. Stated another way, at any moment in time, the aperture blocks ninety-five percent of the light returning from the specimen. Therefore, the brightness of the image observed with confocal scanning microscopy is no more than five percent of the brightness of the image which would be observed without the scanning aperture disc.

There are two approaches which are intuitively obvious for increasing the brightness of the image without losing the ability to see the entire image in a flicker free presentation. These include increasing the intensity of the light illuminating the specimen or increasing the number of apertures in the aperture disc such that instead of five percent, the disc may have fifteen or twenty percent or more area of apertures. As the intensity of light used to illuminate the specimens is already often maximal for technical or financial reasons, or the generation of light returning from the specimen is limited by other factors such as the photo damage due to sensitivity to bright light or bleaching properties of the specimen, the first alternative is not helpful to solve the specimen brightness problem. With the second alternative, increasing the number of apertures moves them closer together which is known to decrease the quality of the confocal image in that it degrades resolution and contrast of the image. In other words, as there are more openings in the aperture disc, or the size of the apertures is increased, the confocal effect achieved by masking out-of-focus light and scattered light from other image planes and other regions of the same image plane is reduced. Therefore, these two obvious alternatives to increasing the brightness of the image are ineffective in doing so.

Still another approach to improving the brightness of the image is to use a more sensitive video camera. Such cameras, such as silicon intensified target cameras, micro channel plate intensifiers coupled to video cameras, and certain charge coupled devices offer the advantage of being able to detect and amplify optical signals that are at intensities lower than the human eye can easily detect. Such devices are often used in conjunction with digital image processors in which the electrical signals from the cameras are stored in digital "frame buffers". While a frame buffer may be filled far more slowly to create an entire image as its memory is far longer lasting than the eye and brain's ability to maintain a visual image, there is typically no modification to the scanning technique when these cameras and digital image processors are utilized. In a typical application, images are still sought to be produced in flicker free time frames which require image acquisition every 1/30th of a second. With such a timing protocol, there can be no adjustment in the aperture scanning rate. Therefore, the extended memory of the frame buffer is simply utilized to accumulate more images into the buffer and thus improve the signal-to-noise ratio by signal averaging. In some cases, in addition, the gain and black level adjustments of the camera must be manually adjusted to permit the detection of weak light signals from a specimen in order to produce an image that is detectable above the electrical "noise" of the camera. Nonetheless, if the camera has some limits in the range of intensities that it can effectively image, the use of a scanning aperture that provides flicker free images may cause the intensity of light to be too dim to be effectively scanned.

To solve these and other problems in the prior art, the inventor herein has developed a method and apparatus for varying the aperture scan rate to speeds below that of "flicker fusion" in order to take full advantage of a frame buffer's extended memory. By varying the aperture scan speed, improvement of the image may be increasingly noticed as the scan speed slows to an optimum scan speed which may be defined as the speed which exposes every portion of the specimen for the full image acquisition time for the particular video camera being used. For example, assuming an image acquisition time of 1/30th of a second (the acquisition time of many video cameras), then an aperture scan speed which exposes every portion of the specimen for the full 1/30th of a second would result in an image which is maximally bright. Assuming an aperture which has a light transmission ratio of five percent, meaning that light is transmitted through five percent of any representative area of the aperture, then the aperture must scan twenty time intervals in order to acquire an entire image (20%×5%=100%). Presuming each time interval equals 1/30th of a second in order to maximize the light intensity of the image, then the scan speed for the aperture equals twenty times 1/30th of a second or 2/3 seconds, ignoring the effects of overlapping aperture openings. Therefore, with the example given, the aperture should be scanned at a speed that covers the entire specimen in 2/3 seconds.

The advantages of this slow scanning technique can be clearly seen when using a video camera. If the light coming from a particular part of the specimen is at a relatively low value (as may occur if the aperture is scanning the entire specimen every 1/30th of a second), then the camera may not sense any signal at all. If on the other hand the aperture is rotating very slowly, then only a fraction of the specimen will be scanned each 1/30th of a second but the light from those regions will give rise to a far greater signal, and a signal that is now detectable above the noise level. For these reasons, virtually any camera will have an improved image quality resulting from a higher signal-to-noise ratio when slow scanning techniques are utilized. Assuming an aperture disc with a light transmission ratio of five percent and a video camera with an image acquisition time of 1/30th of a second we can determine the relative increase in the usable signal intensity by slow scanning compared to flicker-free scanning. In the case when the disc scans slowly (e.g. 2/3 second per image as noted above), each region of the specimen is imaged for the full acquisition time of the camera. On the other hand, if the disc scans fast (1/30th of a second per image) each region of the specimen is imaged for only five percent of the image acquisition time of the camera or 1/600th of a second. As the camera integrates the light signal for 1/30th of a second, in the case of slow scanning the regions illuminated and viewed during 1/30th of a second interval will give rise to a signal that is twenty times as bright as would occur if the disc scanned rapidly. As noted above, in order to obtain the full image it would now take twenty times as long but the signal would in essence be twenty times as bright.

Furthermore, this improved image quality and signal-to-noise ratio may be enhanced by adjusting the black level and/or gain of the camera. For example, in the case when the signal from scanning slowly appears twenty times brighter than it does when scanning rapidly (with an aperture allowing five percent of the light through at any one time), the background scattered light off the opaque surface of the aperture can be completely eliminated. That is because the image is bright compared to the backscatter off the aperture surface, and the difference in brightness level is so significant that the gain and black level controls can be adjusted to completely eliminate noise signal from the aperture surface resulting from backscatter. On the other hand, when the aperture is spinning rapidly the difference in light level between the returning light and the back-scatter light is not as significant, corresponding to a lower signal-to-noise ratio, such that the gain or black level controls must be adjusted to more sensitive levels which by necessity allows noise resulting from backscatter to be sensed or worse prevents the dimmest part of the image from being detected. With the examples as utilized in this discussion, it is believed that slow scanning techniques and adjustment of video camera controls can result in completely eliminating backscatter noise from the scanning disc which dramatically improves the quality of the image.

Thus slow scanning allows (a) images to be detected that would otherwise be too dim to be detected, and (b) noise from the disc surface to be safely eliminated by manual gain adjustment without degradation of the image's signal. A third improvement concerns the ability to eliminate electrical noise from the video camera as a source of noise in the final image. Because slow scanning increases considerably the signal level per image acquisition time, the camera's electrical noise level may safely be diminished so that the dimmest parts of the image are just detectable. At such a gain or black level setting the intrinsic camera noise may be virtually gone permitting a signal with very little noise. This permits long term image acquisition without noise accumulation.

While the above discussion focuses on maximizing the quality of the image obtained as limited by the image acquisition time of the video camera, it should be noted that there is further improvement in the quality of the image when the aperture scanning times are slowed beyond the simple image acquisition time of the video camera. In most applications, the information contained in the image is further enhanced by collecting additional light returning from the specimen as the image is scanned by the aperture using the technique of signal averaging where the constant image builds up and the noise gradually decreases. The only requirement need be that the frame buffer which collects the light returning from the specimen be held open while the specimen is scanned such that this additional light may be collected and used to construct the image after the scanning has been completed. This is especially valuable in those instances when adjustment of the gain and black level control of the video camera completely eliminates the backscatter noise from the aperture, as described above. Thus, as the aperture slowly scans the specimen, virtually the only light detected by the video camera and stored in the frame buffer is that which returns from the specimen and is masked by the aperture in true confocal fashion. Therefore, aperture scanning speeds can be slowed beyond the "optimum" speeds mentioned above and the light collected may be used to construct even higher quality images by signal averaging.

In order to achieve slow scanning, an aperture disc which has multiple tracks of apertures having different patterns also has a track of optical sync lines, along with a marker at one position in the disc to note complete revolution. An infrared LED may be used to bounce light off of the optical markers which is then focused onto a photodector, such as a phototransistor, and used to create a signal for a phase lock loop speed control circuit for the aperture motor, or for controlling a microstepper motor. With this speed and position sensing arrangement and control, the scanning speed of the aperture may be very accurately controlled in an almost infinitely variable manner in order to achieve the purposes of the present invention. Still another consideration is how to determine the desired physical speed of the aperture disc in order to achieve the optimum scanning rate. The factors that affect the physical speed for any particular optimum scanning rate are, in general, the same that determine the time duration that any region of the specimen is imaged. These include the pattern of the openings that comprise the aperture. By "pattern" is meant, for pin hole type apertures, each hole's width along the circumference it traverses as t disc spins and its radial position. For slits, "pattern" means slit width, pitch, and in some cases radial position. For discs having multiple tracks, the radial position of the pattern is thus a factor unless care is taken in constructing the patterns to make them radius independent.

While the principal advantages and features of the present invention have been explained, a more thorough understanding thereof may be obtained by referring to the drawings and description of the preferred embodiment which follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the single aperture confocal scanning epi-illumination microscope formed by installation of the kit to a regular epi-illumination microscope;

FIG. 2 is a partial view of the optics portion of the microscope with light rays drawn in to represent the incident light;

FIG. 3 is a partial view of the optics of the microscope with light rays drawn in to represent the returning light;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of the optics of the second embodiment of the microscope utilizing mirrors to relocate the conjugate field plane out of the vertical optical axis of the microscope;

FIG. 5 is a side view of a version of the kit installed on a standard microscope;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane of line 6--6 in FIG. 5 showing the interchangeable lens;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane of line 7--7 in FIG. 5 detailing the aperture with the wedge-shaped slots;

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view of the optics of the third embodiment of the microscope utilizing only one extra standard objective lens positioned at its correct tube length;

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic view of the optics for two alternate versions of the third embodiment showing either a standard or specially ground objective lens placed relatively closer to the aperture;

FIG. 10 is a top view of a disc-type aperture having timing markings for optical speed sensing and control;

FIG. 11 is a partial, enlarged view of the timing markings shown in the disc-type aperture of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic view of the speed and position control arrangement of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As best shown in FIG. 1, the first embodiment of the kit as installed on a standard epi-illumination microscope results in the single aperture confocal scanning epi-illumination microscope 20. As shown therein, a light source 22 produces a beam of incident light 24 for illuminating the specimen. A beam splitter such as a half-silvered mirror or the like 26 reflects the incident light 24 through a first, standard objective, intermediate lens 28 which focuses the incident light at a first field plane where an aperture 30 is positioned. The aperture 30 may comprise a single pin hole or spot, a rectangular slit, an Archimedian spiral of holes, or any other suitable aperture as is known in the art of confocal scanning microscopes. A second intermediate lens 32, which may also be a standard objective lens, defocuses the incident light into the standard objective lens 34 of the microscope 20. A negative or diverging lens 36 may be placed between lenses 32, 34 to correct for the tube lengths of lenses 32 and 34, as is known in the art. The inventors have utilized matched 10x, EF, 160 mm standard objective lenses for lenses 28, 32. It is noted that lenses 28, 32 are utilized to create the field plane at aperture 30 for both incident light and light returning from the specimen 38 mounted on the stage 40. Thus, both incident and reflected light traverse lenses 28, 32. If the lenses 28, 32 are matched, there is greater assurance that the same effect is given to the light as it passes through both lenses. However, excellent images may be obtained with a simple plano-convex lens replacing lens 32. Furthermore, the magnification of the microscope 20 may be changed by merely replacing lens 28 with a lens having a different power. This is because both incident and reflected light traverse lens 28, and lens 28 is "above" the aperture and specimen. A means to move the aperture 30 (rotating Nipkow disc, slits, or spots) is included. If a rectilinear scan of a pinhole aperture is desired, an X-Y stage controller 42 and matched computer 44 which are well known in the art for controlling the movement of a microscope stage could serve. Such a controller may also be used for controlling the movement of aperture 30 within the conjugate field plane to achieve the scanning of the aperture across the specimen 38 as desired herein. A second half-silvered mirror or the like 46 may be utilized to divert the reflected light either into an eyepiece 48 for direct viewing of the specimen 38, or for directing the light to video camera 50 which produces a plurality of images reconstructed by an image processor 52 having a frame buffer for storing the images for display on a CRT 54 or the like.

In practice, the X-Y stage controller 42 may be a part No. 517MF as manufactured by Stahl Research Laboratories, and the aperture may be mounted to a 22 mm stage as manufactured by Artek. Also, a light source producing blue, green, or ultraviolet light may be utilized for light source 22, and the specimen 38 may be dyed such that incident light impinging on specimen 38 induces fluorescence of a different wavelength to facilitate its separation from incident light by standard fluorescence excitation and barrier filters near the half-silvered or dichroic mirror 26. However, it is to be understood that these particular components are merely examples of those which might be utilized by one of ordinary skill in the art and that other equivalent devices for achieving separation of incident from reflected light may also be used. For example, bright field epi-illumination may also be carried out with an aperture in a surface that does not reflect light into the ocular or whose reflections are blocked by cross polarization.

As shown in FIG. 1, those items which comprise the kit for converting the ordinary microscope into the single aperture confocal scanning microscope 20 include intermediate, standard objective lenses 28, 32; aperture 30; X-Y stage controller 42; and computer 44. As an option, the negative or diverging lens 36 may also be included to correct for the tube length of lenses 32, 34, as mentioned above. Typically, a standard, laboratory use, epi-illumination microscope would include the other components as shown in FIG. 1. The mechanical positioning and layout of a commercial embodiment of the kit 21 as installed on an ordinary microscope is more fully explained below and shown in FIG. 5.

As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a conjugate field plane for both incident and returning light is created as it traverses the space between the mirror 26 and the specimen by lenses 28, 32, both of which are in the light paths for incident and reflected light. This is more easily understood by referring first to FIG. 2 which represents the incident light. Typically, a light source 22 includes a lamp 56 for creating the illumination, a first lens 58 and second lens 60 which accommodate the placement of an aperture diaphragm 62 for adjusting the intensity of the incident light and also creating a field plane for the placement of a field diaphragm 64 to permit adjustment of the incident light beam size. A third lens 62 provides further control for focusing the incident light. As mentioned, these components are typically included within a Kohler illumination type light source 22, as known in the art. The incident light is then reflected by half-silvered or dichroic mirror 26 through the first intermediate lens 28 which creates a field plane 66 of the incident light for insertion of the aperture. This field plane 66 is conjugate to the field plane created at the specimen, or specimen plane 68. Field plane 64 is also conjugate to field plane 66. This minimizes the potential for inadvertent misalignment of the light source such that a good quality illuminating beam is formed.

As best shown in FIG. 3, the image forming path of the returning light essentially retraces the same path as the incident light traversed between the mirror 26 and specimen plane 68. However, the intermediate lens 32 acts to refocus the returning light and induce a field plane 70 which is conjugate to the specimen plane 68. It is noted that the induced conjugate field plane 70 for the returning light is coincident with the induced conjugate field plane 66 of the incident light such that an aperture placed at this coincident conjugate field plane has the same effect upon the incident light as it does upon the returning light. Additionally, another conjugate field plane 72 is induced such that an eyepiece 48 may be used to replicate the magnified specimen at the viewer's eye, or a video camera or film (see FIG. 1) may be used to replicate the specimen as necessary to record an image.

As shown in FIG. 4, a microscope arrangement 74 can be formed by adding to the kit 21 a first pair of mirrors 76, 78 which are placed at an acute angle in the light path for both incident and reflected light. These mirrors reflect the light out of the optical axis or centerline 80 of the microscope 74 and through the intermediate lenses 28, 32. A second pair of mirrors 82, 84 are then used to bounce the incident and reflected light back in alignment to create the conjugate field plane 66, 70 at a point physically removed from the optical axis of centerline 80. As is well known to those in the art, the angles at which mirrors 76, 78, 82, 84 are positioned are virtually limitless and can be used to greatly vary the distance between mirrors 82, 84 and thereby increase the physical accessibility to the conjugate field planes 66, 70, as desired. Also, the lateral distance between the conjugate field planes 66, 70 and the optical axis or centerline 80 may be changed as desired.

As shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, an embodiment of the kit 21 is attached to the nosepiece 86 of a standard epi-illumination microscope with the microscope's standard objective lens 88 being secured to the kit 21. Therefore, the kit 21 interfits between the nosepiece 86 and the standard objective lens 88 in the manner shown. The kit 21 includes a generally elongated assembly 90 having a first pair of mirrors 92, 94 which divert the incident and reflected light along the length of the assembly 90. A second pair of mirrors 96, 98 direct the incident and reflected light through a spinning aperture 100 which takes the form of a circular disc having a number of wedge shaped, radially aligned slits 102, 104. The aperture 100 is rotated by motor 106 and controlled by motor control 108. At a midpoint in the assembly 90 is mounted a lower fixed lens 110 and an upper rotatable wheel 112 (see FIG. 6) having four separate lenses 114, 116, 118, 120; any one of which may be rotated into position in the light path. Lens 110 corresponds to lens 28 and lenses 114-120 correspond to lens 32 in FIG. 1 and perform a like function as explained above. Changing lenses with rotatable wheel 112 achieves a change in magnification and illumination of the specimen. A mechanical positioning device 122 mounted atop the outboard end of assembly 90 permits repositioning of the aperture 100 with respect to mirrors 96, 98. This permits adjustment of the optical sectioning viewed by the microscope as the average width of apertures 102, 104 (see FIG. 7) through which the light traverses is changed due to their wedge shape, thereby changing the size of the scanning light beam. The smaller the width of the apertures 102, 104 used to mask the incident and reflected light, the smaller the depth of the optical section obtained.

Still another embodiment disclosed herein is shown in FIG. 8 and includes a standard eyepiece 124, a beam splitter 126, a standard objective lens 128, an aperture means 130, a second standard objective lens 132, and a specimen plane 134. Other components of the standard microscope are not shown in FIG. 8 for purposes of clarity. As noted previously herein, each standard objective lens 128, 132 has a tube length representing the distance between the back focal plane 136, 138 respectively at each of lenses 128, 132 and its focal plane 140, 142 wherein a color corrected image is formed. As shown in FIG. 8, this requires a physical separation represented by arrows 144, 146 corresponding to mounting tubes which may, in some instances, render the resulting microscope unwieldy or inconvenient for use. However, a major advantage can be realized in the embodiment in FIG. 8 in that only a single extra standard objective lens 128 is required to create the field plane at aperture 130 both for incident light, and reflected light as the standard objective lens 132 need not be paired with the second intermediate lens, such as lens 32 as shown in FIG. 1 in order to correct for the tube length. For purposes of illustration, arrows 148 and 150 represent the working distances for the standard objective lenses 128, 132. The full rated working distance of each of these lenses 128, 132 can be realized as the geometry of the microscope is arranged to make use of the full tube length rating of each lens.

An alternate version of the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 is shown in FIG. 9 and includes the same lens 124, 128 and beam splitter 126 along with aperture 130 all oriented in their same relative physical positions. However, lens 152 may be either a standard objective lens or a specially ground lens, either one of which is oriented physically closer to the aperture 130 to render the microscope more compact and more readily usable in a manner similar to other standard microscopes presently commercially available. If lens 152 is a standard objective lens, then, as explained above, color aberrations may be induced in the resultant image and a reduced working height, as represented by the distance between arrows 154, may be experienced with the risk that the working height is reduced to a dimension so small as to render the microscope virtually unusable for many applications.

If lens 152 is a specially designed and manufactured lens having a reduced tube length, then the working distance and color aberration problems may be overcome with some sacrifice in the versatility of the microscope in that lens 152 may not be interchanged with other standard objective lenses.

As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a disc-type aperture 160 may include several annular tracks having apertures of different designs. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the first track depicted 162 although shown in rectangles may actually be entirely clear and removed of opaque material from a photosensitive surface. The next track 164 is comprised of a plurality of spiral slits spaced relatively closely together. The next outermost track 166 is also comprised of a plurality of spiral slits which are of a different pitch and lower density. The next outermost track 168 is comprised of a plurality of pinholes having a relatively high density. The next outermost track 170 is also comprised of a plurality of pinholes having less density than those of track 168. As can be appreciated, the disc aperture 160 may thus comprise a plurality of annular rings or tracks 164-170, each of which has a different aperture pattern as might be best utilized for different applications of the confocal microscope. The next outermost annular track 172 is comprised of a series of rectangles as are used for optically sensing the speed of the spinning disc aperture 160. Outside of track 172 is a single marker 174 for indicating a circumferential position on the disc aperture 160, and counting the revolutions thereof.

Referring now to FIG. 11, an enlarged view is taken about the marker 174 to show in more accurate perspective the track 172 of rectangular timing lines. In a preferred embodiment, 3,520 rectangular boxes or pair of lines having a nominal 3 mm length are positioned about the track 172 at a nominal 0.10227°. Each rectangular box is a nominal 50 microns wide, at a track centerline of 56 mm radius. As is well known in the art, this set of rectangular sync lines track 172 may be used for accurate speed measurement and position control of the disc aperture 160.

As shown in FIG. 12, the disc aperture 160 is supported by a shaft 175 and bearing 176, and driven by motor 178. Motor control 180 controls the speed of motor 178. An infrared LED 182 is arranged to emit infrared light through a beam splitter 184 onto the track 172 containing the sync lines, as described above. Infrared light reflects from the sync lines back to beam splitter 184 where they are focused by lens 186 onto a photodector 188, such as a phototransistor. This information is then fed back to the motor control 180 and is used to sense and control both the speed and position of disc aperture 160. The motor control circuit 180 may include a phase lock loop, in which instance motor 178 would be a DC motor. Alternately, motor 178 may be a microstepper motor and motor control circuit 180 used to control it. In either instance, or in any other similar arrangement as is known in the art, motor control circuit 180 may be used to provide nearly infinitely variable speed of disc aperture 160. Thus, an operator may use the speed control of motor control circuit 180 to fine tune or tweak the speed of the disc aperture 160 in any application.

If desired, such an arrangement may be used to count the number of slits in track 172 for actually gating the video camera 50 (as shown in FIG. 1) in order to ensure that the proper arcuate sector of disc aperture 160 has been used to scan the specimen. This control is necessary in order to achieve full scanning of the specimen in the proper time interval with no overscanning or underscanning which might result in an unevenness in illumination across the image. Although this method and apparatus provides for coordinating an exactly even illumination across the image, it should be noted that unevenness of illumination is relatively minor in underscanning or overscanning of the specimen in that overscanning (underscanning) of the specimen for a full image act acquisition time interval (typically 1/30th of a second) would result in an over (under) illumination of only five percent of the image for an aperture having a five percent light transmission ratio.

There are various changes and modifications which may be made to the invention as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. However, these changes or modifications are included in the teaching of the disclosure, and it is intended that the invention be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating an image of a specimen with a confocal scanning optical device, said optical device including an aperture means for masking at least the light returning from the specimen, and means for scanning the specimen with the aperture means, the method comprising the step of scanning the specimen with the aperture at a speed slower than that required to produce flicker free images in real time.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a video imaging device coupled to the confocal scanning optical device for creating a video image corresponding to the image produced by the confocal scanning optical device, said video imaging device having an image acquisition time, and wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes the step of scanning each portion of the specimen with the aperture means for a time no greater than the approximate image acquisition time.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the aperture means has an aperture transmission ratio defined as the ratio of open area per unit area of aperture scanning surface, and wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes the step of scanning the entire specimen with the aperture means for a time no slower than approximately the image acquisition time divided by the aperture transmission ratio.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes the step of scanning the entire specimen with the aperture means at approximately the image acquisition time divided by the aperture transmission ratio.
 5. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes the step of scanning each portion of the specimen with the aperture means for a time substantially equal to the image acquisition time.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes scanning the specimen for a time duration greater than approximately 1/30th of a second.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising a video imaging device coupled to the confocal scanning optical device for creating a video image corresponding to the image produced by the confocal scanning optical device, and an image storage device coupled to the video imaging device for storing the video image produced thereby, said video imaging device having an image acquisition time, and wherein the step of scanning the specimen includes the step of scanning each portion of the specimen with the aperture means for a time greater than the image acquisition time.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the aperture means has a plurality of different patterns, and means for positioning any one of said patterns for marking said returning light, and the method further comprises the step of varying the scanning speed of the aperture means as a function of the differences between patterns in said aperture means.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of patterns includes patterns comprised of a plurality of discontinuous openings, said discontinuous openings patterns differing as to opening size along the direction of scanning, and wherein the step of varying includes the step of varying as a function of the difference in said opening size.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the aperture means is a disc and the plurality of different patterns includes patterns located at different radial positions on said disc and wherein the step of varying includes the step of varying as a function of said different radial positions.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein said multiple patterns includes patterns comprised of continuous openings, said continuous openings differing as to pitch along the direction of scanning, and wherein the step of varying includes varying as a function of the difference in said pitch.
 12. In a confocal scanning optical device, said optical device including an aperture means for masking at least the light returning from a specimen and means for scanning said specimen with said aperture, the improvement comprising control means for varying and controlling said aperture scanning rate.
 13. The device of claim 12 further comprising means for measuring the rate at which the aperture means scans the specimen.
 14. The device of claim 13 wherein the rate measuring means comprises a track on said aperture means, said track including a plurality of position indicators, and means for sensing the presence or absence of said position indicators at a point along the path of the aperture means.
 15. The device of claim 14 wherein the position indicator sensing means comprises a light source, a means for sensing the reflection of light emanating from said light source and reflecting from said position indicators.
 16. The device of claim 12 wherein the control means includes means for infinitely varying the speed of the aperture means between zero and preselected maximum speed.
 17. The device of claim 13 wherein the control means senses the output of the aperture rate scanning means, and controls the aperture means at least partially in response to said sensed output.
 18. A method for creating an image of a specimen with an imaging device connected to a confocal scanning optical device, said imaging device having an image acquisition time and said optical device including an incident light source for illuminating the specimen, an aperture means for masking at least the light returning from the specimen, and means for scanning the specimen with the aperture means, the method comprising the steps of simultaneously illuminating and collecting returning light from a first portion of the specimen for a time period substantially equal to said image acquisition time, and repeating said previous step for subsequent portions of said specimen until the entirety of said specimen portions of interest have been illuminated.
 19. The method of claim 18 wherein the step of repeating includes the step of illuminating and collecting returning light from each portion of the specimen for substantially the same time period.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein the aperture means has an aperture transmission ratio defined as the ratio of open area per unit area of scanning surface, and wherein the step of repeating includes illuminating and collecting returning light until the total of said time periods is no less than approximately the image acquisition time divided by the aperture transmission ratio. 